Killeedy brings potent mix of Broadway magic and ambition to Limerick’s UCH 

ON the night that Ireland beat the All-Blacks on Irish soil, the West Limerick community of  Killeedy pulled off its own particular brand of magic with a spectacular concert at the University Concert Hall.

It was a bold and daring move for this small community which likes to dream big and which has ambitious and far-reaching plans to secure for itself a  brighter future.

Saturday’s concert was another step towards ensuring that future, a fundraiser for a series of projects spearheaded by the Killeedy GAA club but designed to provide facilities for all within the community: a walking track, a hurling wall and a gym.

Wave after wave of Killeedy men and women arrived into the auditorium like an advancing army, ready to make it their own. But their weapon of choice was music. And In their wake, came a second wave, from Broadford, keen to support their own and their neighbours.

“Every Tom, Dick and Harry is here,” one man said, greeting fellow parishioners who had made the trip in from West Limerick to take their seats at UCH. “It will be a great night,” came the answer.

And so it proved to be.

From the opening song, the Broadway magic was evident and US visitors,  Ron Sharpe and Barbara Russell-Sharpe with members of their family and others, sprinkled it about with abandon. Big numbers, big voices in a smooth-running, professional show that wowed the audience, with its mix of big-show favourites, Disney medleys and even a dollop of opera.

But Killeedy and Broadford held their own. When Killeedy’s musicians and singers took to the stage, the roars of approval were Aviva-like and the audience joined in their rendition of Limerick, You’re a Lady, sung in honour of the Limerick Ladies Footballing champions who had star-seats in the auditorium and who were later honoured on stage.

And there was a proper Limerick welcome too for the Edmonstown Golf Club Choir, and particularly for one of its members, Killeedy’s very own Tim O’Connor, former Irish Consul General in New York.

But it was the 60-plus members of the Broadford Youth Choir who stole the show. Saturday’s concert was also a fund-raiser for the choir who are heading to New York in March.  Under the baton of their founder and musical director Susan Browne, they sang out, demonstrating a great purity of voice and tone, exceptional discipline and a glorying in the music that stole hearts.

Their version of You’ll Never Walk Alone had the crowd singing along and the final song, One Day More, for which everybody was back on stage, brought the audience to its feet in a loud and resounding cheer for what was indeed, a great night. Even more than that, a mighty night.